CHAPTER 539: CHAPTER 233: THE CIRCUS_2

"Sigh~"

A sigh, whether of relief or melancholy, emanated from Toto’s mask.

By lap 17, Hamilton was only about 0.5 seconds behind Leclerc, while at this time, Leclerc’s engine started intermittently experiencing brief stoppages again.

Fortunately, Qin Miao had just given him a pull upfront, and Hamilton behind couldn’t overtake Leclerc.

Moreover, after chasing Leclerc for so many laps, Hamilton’s tires started blistering.

Then, on lap 19, Leclerc again used Qin Miao’s DRS to widen the gap with Hamilton back to 1.1 seconds.

Meanwhile, the pit window opened, and Perez on hard tires was the first to pit for a tire change.

At this moment, Qin Miao’s tires had only just worn past 30%, leaving him with more than 65% tire life.

This is thanks to the horrifying effect of controlling the pace the entire race.

Qin Miao even had a premonition; if he exerted a little harder, maybe he could make a one-stop strategy with yellow and red tires.

Of course, Qin Miao wouldn’t take the risk; the team had already calculated his tire wear. Even for himself, Qin Miao wouldn’t make a mess when he could steadily take the championship.

However, due to Qin Miao’s pace management, the front group of drivers had less tire wear, so none of them had any intention of pitting at the moment.

On the contrary, Hamilton, who had been trying to attack Leclerc, reported to the team that both of his front tires were blistering due to overheating, and the gap with Leclerc increased back to 1.5 seconds.

It’s worth mentioning that after being reminded by the team, Qin Miao didn’t hold back the pace anymore. Qin Miao also felt that the team might have realized something but didn’t make it explicit.

If he continued to play dumb and force his teammate Hamilton at this time, it wouldn’t be explainable by a mere mistake, so after being reminded by the team, Qin Miao started to speed up and ran his own pace.

Within two laps, the gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc widened to 2.5 seconds, and there was basically no turbulent air in front of Leclerc.

It’s worth mentioning that without the turbulent air and running his own pace, Leclerc was even faster, even once taking back Qin Miao’s fastest lap time.

On lap 24, Qin Miao regained the fastest lap. It’s hard to imagine that a set of medium tires running 25 laps could still have such terrifying speed on Qin Miao’s car.

Moreover, Qin Miao also extended the gap with Leclerc behind him to over 5 seconds.

And maintaining this gap, he began to protect his tires.

With this gap, Leclerc basically had all clean air in front of him.

Originally, Hamilton found it difficult to overtake Leclerc, and now, without Qin Miao’s dirty air affecting him, Leclerc was even faster, widening the gap with Hamilton to 2 seconds in these few laps.

On lap 27, Hamilton, who had been held back for more than half the race by Leclerc, finally chose to pit.

After Hamilton stopped in his spot, the team personnel only prepared their hands and waited in place for Hamilton to complete his 10-second penalty.

After what felt like an endless 10 seconds to Hamilton and all the Mercedes engineers, everyone seemed to suddenly be pressed with a start button and moved into action.

This time the team fitted Hamilton with hard tires. Although the race was already halfway through, Hamilton needed to chase with all his strength ahead, so switching to hard tires was necessary.

After Hamilton exited, the data panel on the lower right of the screen showed that this tire change took 14.2 seconds. Subtract the 10-second penalty, and this tire change took 4.2 seconds, with a total pit lane time of 40 seconds.

After accepting the penalty, Hamilton fell to fifth place, behind Norris, a full 41 seconds behind Qin Miao, who hadn’t yet pitted.

Some might say at this time, didn’t Hamilton’s pit stop take 40 seconds? Why is Qin Miao, originally ahead of Hamilton by about seven seconds, now only one second ahead of Hamilton after exiting the pit?

After pitting, isn’t he only one second ahead of Hamilton?

But in fact, pitting is a dynamic process, where drivers maintain a speed of 80 km/h through the pit lane for a certain period, which needs to be accounted for.

Of course, Hamilton’s position is also somewhat illusory since Sainz hasn’t yet pitted in front of him.

As for Ferrari’s strategy group, figuring out how to handle the current situation is not difficult. Even without the strategy group wracking their brains, a fan on the command stand would know what to do at this point.

Hamilton carried a 10-second penalty, and in the first half of the race, Hamilton couldn’t overtake Leclerc. So Ferrari could directly steal Mercedes’ tactic, have Leclerc pit for white tires, then run his own pace, and start defending against Hamilton once he caught up.

The three commentators from Five-Star Sports also agreed with this, and Bing straightforwardly predicted: "According to Leclerc’s current pace, he should bring it back in second, keeping Hamilton behind."

Yet, in Hamilton’s first lap after pitting, Leclerc didn’t pit, maintaining his speed at 1m31.9s without dropping, so the team called for him to stay out wasn’t an issue.

However, Sainz chose to pit during this lap as well.

Pitting at this moment wasn’t a problem for him either, considering he had run 25 laps on his medium tires.

And when Sainz stopped in the tire change position, Ferrari’s tire changers gave the onlookers quite a spectacle.

Sainz stopped the car, and the front and rear jack technicians lifted Sainz’s car, after which the tire changers removed the tires and installed the new ones, and the air gun operator began securing the tire bolts.

The two rear wheels and the right front wheel completed all their operations immediately, while the left front tire changer’s initial steps had no issues, but the air gun operator couldn’t tighten the bolts no matter how hard he tried.

Crucially, after struggling for three or four seconds, finally securing the tire and able to release the car, the air gun operator didn’t immediately lower the air gun to signal a successful tire change but instead slowly raised the air gun and nodded twice.

Half a second later, Ferrari’s tire changers released Sainz.

When Sainz left, the lower-right corner displayed the tire change time: [12.3 seconds], almost as long as Hamilton’s penalty time.

Sainz was unjustly given a ten-second penalty by the team.

After seeing this scene, the commentators at Five-Star Sports said in exasperation: "What on earth are these Ferrari idiots doing?"

"After changing the tire, he’s still nodding there, incredible."

"How can Ferrari make such a basic mistake?"

"Let’s hope nothing like this happens during Leclerc’s tire change."

...

After being sabotaged by the team, Sainz fell quite a few positions, ending up behind Ricciardo instead of being between Hamilton and Ricciardo, with a five-second gap to Ricciardo.

In the following lap, lap 30, Leclerc also chose to pit.

Honestly, with Sainz’s previous pit stop as a warning, everyone, including the three commentators from Five-Star Sports, all spectators watching the race, and Ferrari fans, was worried for Leclerc during his pit stop.

But soon, a dramatic scene unfolded on screen, as Leclerc stopped, and the team changed him to white tires, taking only 2.2 seconds.

This tire change time was fast enough to challenge the fastest pit stop time of this Grand Prix, much faster than Sainz’s pit stop...

After witnessing this scene, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Even in a circus, some rest is necessary, and the show shouldn’t be too overwhelming.

ps. I’ve been quite busy at work today, only managed to write four thousand words...